AirTouch Wins Extension-Phone Ruling

SANTA ANA —  AirTouch Cellular, the Irvine-based cellular telephone service, said it obtained a federal court ruling that prohibits a Costa Mesa company from selling so-called extension phones to AirTouch customers.

AirTouch said a federal court in Santa Ana ruled that the Cellular Extension Co. was violating Federal Communications Commission orders and regulations banning the imitation of electronic serial numbers on cellular phones.

Extension phones use the same numbers as original phones purchased by cellular subscribers, serving as a kind of cellular equivalent of having an extra household phone without buying a separate line.

Melissa May, an AirTouch spokeswoman, said people who use extension phones still pay for the air time they use, but avoid paying a monthly access fee on the extra phone.

Extension phones also disrupt the company’s systems that are designed to detect illegal clones--phones that use stolen codes to make calls that are charged to legitimate subscribers.

AirTouch said the court ordered Cellular Extension to provide AirTouch Cellular with its business records pertaining to the altered phones, including the names, addresses or telephone numbers of individuals or entities for whom the company emulated cellular phones.

May said AirTouch didn’t pursue monetary damages in its suit against the Cellular Extension. AirTouch is a subsidiary of AirTouch Communications Inc. of San Francisco.